Even as panic has gripped a large section of the society over COVID-19, various trade bodies are trying to instil confidence in the public and seeking their cooperation. While All Nagaland Fair Price Shops’ Association (ANFPSA) has appealed to National Food Security Act (NFSA) beneficiaries to pay attention and strictly follow orders and guidelines issued by food & civil supplies department in procuring food grains through fair price shop, Nagaland Medicine Dealers’ Association (NMDA) has informed the public that all medicine shops would remain open as usual.
NMDA president A Ato Yepthomi has informed all association members that the administration had directed medical shops to remain opened as per regular timing in public interest.
In a release, the NMDA president informed all medicine dealers as well as the general public that medical shops would have to remain open as long as possible. He also directed all association members to carry their identity cards while opening their shops and going back to their houses.
The association also requested the administration and police to co-operate with members of the medical fraternity without any harassment in public interest.
Meanwhile, ANFPSA called upon all fair price shops (FPS) owners to co-ordinate with their respective district administration for functioning smoothly, even as it requested village/colony chairmen, gaon burahs (GBs), youth and student bodies in helping FPS to maintain utmost discipline in their areas for distribution of food grains to the beneficiaries.
The association felt that it was every single person’s responsibility to combat the mysterious COVID-19 by way of maintaining social distance as FPS issued food grains to 20-30 persons daily in line with the department directives by providing hand sanitizers, hand wash, etc.
Urging the beneficiaries to strictly adhere to the guidelines issued by the government while collecting food grains from FPS to contain spreading of the disease, ANFPSA also appealed to the district administrations, law enforcing agencies and security forces manning towns and colonies to cooperate with the persons on FPS duty and trucks transporting goods along with labour for loading and unloading in order to maintain conducive atmosphere and better service. This was stated in a press release.